Generally any transportable object such as a briefcase or hand bag is equipped with a handle so that it may be carried by hand. In some cases however, the object may become too heavy to be carried by the handle alone for a long period of time or it may prove inconvenient when the person carrying it wishes to use both hands for something else. For these reasons, a suspending strap or shoulder strap is ordinarily attached to the object.
A shoulder strap attached to a moveable object is designed so that its length may be varied by an adjusting member such as a buckle. In other words, the length of the shoulder strap must be adjusted to accommodate the person using the bag which can become inconvenient. Additionally, the length of the strap may cause it to hang loose from the object and/or become caught on another protruding object. Thus, the shoulder strap may become dirty when the object is put on the ground, resulting in stains to the clothes of the person carrying the object. Moreover, the shoulder strap is in the way when it is not being used, and may become hazardous, leading to an accident.
Some devices have attempted to eliminate the foregoing problems by means of a hook fixture or the like, which allows the shoulder strap to be attached or detached from the object. However, these devices are not attached to or detached from the associated object each time it becomes necessary or unnecessary. It is usually while the object is being carried that the shoulder strap becomes necessary or unnecessary. In other words, the shoulder strap is not usually detached even if it becomes unnecessary. These conventional devices are inconvenient in that, when the strap becomes unnecessary, the portion of the strap hanging from the object must be secured in the object or gripped together with the handle. Accordingly, these devices are not useful in eliminating the foregoing problems and inconveniences.
In view of this, a variety of strap lodging devices have been proposed in which the strap can be withdrawn into the object or extracted therefrom, depending upon whether the strap is used regularly. These strap lodging devices may be categorized according to two types of locking mechanism: (1) the strap itself is press-locked to prevent it from being extracted or withdrawn inadvertently; or (2) a ratchet mechanism allows the winder of the strap to rotate in one direction only. Either type of conventional strap lodging device must be designed and manufactured into the associated object making it impossible to use on a variety of different objects. Moreover, these conventional strap lodging devices deprive the associated object of its effective space. In some cases, objects such as a video camera offer little or no space at all for mounting the strap lodging device.
Other conventional strap lodging devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,198,300 to Tuttle and U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,029 to Shimura, et al attempt to address the problems associated with a strap lodging device that must be manufactured into the object. For example, the device described in the '300 patent to Tuttle is a retractable strap lodging device that may be disposed in either the portable object itself or as a separate (handle) assembly. Although the device described by the '300 patent to Tuttle addresses the use of a pair of spools which act to retract the strap from either end, the Tuttle device is limited by the dimensions of the object since it must either be manufactured into the object itself or constructed as a handle for a specific object. Similarly, the strap lodging device described by the '029 patent to Shimura et al is similarly limited by the size of the object for which it is intended since the object must be large enough to accommodate the attachment means of the device. Moreover, the device described by the '029 patent to Shimura et al incorporates a single retraction mechanism limiting the adjustability of the device relative to the object, which can cause uneven wear along the length of the strap.
Accordingly, there is a specific need for a retractable strap that is sufficiently compact and lightweight to carry on a person or store in an object such as a handbag, yet is adjustable at either end to accommodate a variety of different transportable objects.